A DIVIDED I.N.D.I.A

On September 15, Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee of trying to chase two hares-allegedly maintaining a tacit relation with the BJP as well as trying to establish herself as one of the strongest players in the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). Chowdhury was speaking at a party event in Diamond Harbour, a constituency that Mamata's nephew and Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee represents in the Lok Sabha.

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

"Mamata Banerjee needs to save her nephew. This is why she maintains her connections with the BJP. But she can now feel that the Congress is re-emerging across the country and that is why she has surrendered to our party by being an INDIA constituent. She is trying to catch both hares," Chowdhury, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said amidst loud applause. Given the combative political history between the TMC and the Congress in Bengal, Chowdhury's attack struck a chord with his followers, but stuck out like a sore thumb in the larger unity that opposition leaders are trying to forge.

Two days before Chowdhury's outburst, on September 13, the coordination committee of INDIAwhich met in New Delhi-expressed solidarity with Abhishek, who was interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate for over nine hours that day over his alleged role in the teachers' recruitment scam. K.C. Venugopal, a Congress general secretary and member of the committee, read out a press statement which said that Abhishek couldn't attend the meeting "due to a summons by the ED, arising out of the vendetta politics of the Bharatiya Janata Party". The statement aligned with the claims of the TMC and Abhishek himselfalso a committee member that the summons and probe by the central agencies emerged out of a targeted attack by the BJP against the TMC.